1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article take-out apparatus and article take-out method, which recognize the positions of articles stored in bulk in a 3D space and take out the recognized articles by using a robot.
2. Description of the Related Art
As this type of apparatus, in the past, there is a known apparatus, which is designed to recognize the positions of articles stored in bulk by carrying out pattern matching on 2D images obtained by photographing the articles with a camera or on a 3D point set obtained by measurement with a 3D measuring device.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-295223A (JP2004-295223A) describes an apparatus which prepares a 2D model pattern from a 2D image which is obtained by photographing an article in a reference relative posture in advance, processes that 2D model pattern by 2D geometric conversion to prepare a plurality of converted 2D model patterns, and uses the plurality of converted 2D model patterns to carry out 2D pattern matching on a 2D image of an article.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2009-128191A (JP2009-128191A) describes an apparatus which measures the surfaces of articles in a 3D space to acquire a 3D point set, determines 3D features of the articles based on this 3D point set, and carries out 3D pattern matching between the 3D features of the articles and a 3D model pattern prepared in advance.
However, the apparatuses which are described in JP2004-295223A and JP2009-128191A require the preparation of a 2D model pattern or 3D model pattern in advance for each type of article, so troublesome work is required. In particular, when there are a large number of types of articles, it is necessary to prepare that number's worth of model patterns, so tremendous work is required. Further, in the case of irregularly shaped articles, since it is inherently not possible to create model patterns, application is impossible.